Mini-Reviews of Books #33…
Hunter’s Chase. Val Penny, author (Crooked Cat Books, 2018). If you can imagine Ian Rankin writing more of a mystery than a police procedural, you’ll like this book. Yet again the reader sees the seamy side of Edinburgh. DCI Hunter has his flaws and has problems with police and government bureaucracy, but he also has a capable crew of interesting cops to aid him. A series of hit-and-runs have similarities. Forensic work and sleuthing led by Hunter gathers the evidence together, but some case oddities and personal battles add many twists to make things interesting.
Veiled Memory. S. P. Brown, author (Black Opal Books, 2018). Celtic myths and legends, Sumerian clans in Manhattan and around the world, Cornell University and ABC News, and paranormal quantum magic—what great fun! Let’s call this a sci-fi/fantasy/mystery/thriller; most of all, let’s call it interesting and exciting storytelling.
Dr. Madeline Alleyn, professor of Celtic History at Cornell, has a past she’s not quite sure about. Her mother died in childbirth, but not before she hid some rune stones that were the first discovered in the Middle East. How they relate to her triplet daughters’ increasing psi powers and their discovery of their mother and grandmother’s pasts make for intriguing storytelling.
That’s the plot. Characters and venues are interesting too. It’s such a treat to encounter a book that offers fresh ideas. And the author pushed all the right buttons for this reader. I read this in two nights—couldn’t put it down. OK, S. P. Brown, what do you do for an encore? Let’s have the sequel. (See my interview with S. P. Brown—it’s archived in the blog category “Interviews.”)
Requiem. Celina Grace, author. Interesting characters, interesting twists. Kate Redman’s brother has a love interest who’s murdered. In this well-plotted mystery, we find as we follow the case that there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. I’m a sucker for British mysteries. I think this is the second book by Celina Grace I’ve read. She’s a prolific author, and I’ll be reading more.
***
Rembrandt’s Angel. Mystery, thrills, and romance await the reader of this novel. Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone is trying to decide whether Interpol Agent Bastiann van Coevorden will become husband #4 as she becomes obsessed with recovering a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. As the case morphs into an international conspiracy, the two become closer as they battle neo-Nazis, a drug cartel, and ISIS. Available in ebook format from Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers, as well as print format at Amazon or your local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for it).
Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape. This potpourri of speculative fiction contains sci-fi and fantasy short stories and the novella “From the Mother World” (a separate story that explains how the ETs arrived earlier than Humans to the planet featured at the beginning of Sing a Zamba Galactica, now bundled as Book #2 in The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection—last few days for 50% off at Smashwords). ETs, ghosts, zombies, with a bit of comic relief thrown in—what more do you want? Available in ebook format on Amazon.
